New Peterloo Exhibition!

Hugh Hornby Birley, copyright People's History Museum. 

On Tuesday we were very privileged to have a sneak preview of the People's History Museum's new Peterloo exhibition, Disrupt? Peterloo and Protest, which opens tomorrow and runs until 23rd February 2020.


The Museum has acquired some wonderful new Peterloo artefacts for the exhibition, including a portrait of mill-owner Hugh Hornby Birley. Birley was the captain of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry Cavalry, and long infamous in the city for his role in the massacre.

Mrs's Mabbott's gown, copyright Manchester Art Gallery/Bridgeman Images. 

The 'middling classes' are represented by Mrs Mabbott's silk gown. The Mabbott family had a confectioner's and tea dealership on Bridge Street, and it's said that Mrs Mabbott was accidentally caught up in the day's violence. The gown is made from fawn corded silk, and has a white linen-lined bodice.

Peterloo Glass, copyright People's History Museum. 

Another very rare and fragile artefact is the 'Peterloo glass', which shows the massacre taking place.

Skelmanthorp flag. Copyright Nigel Wilkes.

I was very intrigued by the Skelmanthorpe flag, on loan from the Tolson Museum. This poignant banner would have been a very dangerous object to its owners. They would have kept it well hidden from the authorities in case they were arrested for sedition.

The exhibition also has a 'Protest Lab' space, where activists and campaigners can display their own items or souvenirs of protests or marches they have been involved in.

Do please visit the exhibition if you can. There are also more galleries upstairs with displays on the history of the fight for our democracy, including pioneers like Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the Chartists.

A big thank you to Clare Short, Sam Jenkins, Kloe Rumsey, and everyone who made us welcome!

Photo: The author with collections officer Sam Jenkins, and conservator officer Kloe Rumsey. Copyright Nigel Wilkes. 

Finally, you can also visit the new Peterloo 1819 website for updates on more upcoming bicentenary events in Manchester. For example, the John Rylands Library, Manchester Art Gallery, the Manchester Histories Festival, and the Working Class Movement Library are all taking part in the Peterloo commemorations.